Some people have suggested I am one of the few recent journalism graduates who understands that journalism and journalists need to change.

I believe that the face of our industry is changing and online/mobile should become where we focus our efforts.

New media trailblazer Rob Curley has been quoted:

In almost every newspaper I’ve worked in, the most close-minded person I’ve ever come across is the 23-year-old recent grad.

You can say many things about me, but close-minded is not one of them. I’m willing to try new things, and I understand that the future of journalism will be different than the past. To some people that means I “get it.”

But why do I “get it,” while many of my peers don’t? I think the answer lies in my path to journalism versus many other j-students and recent graduates. I don’t do Web development, new media, online journalism, audio/video, etc because I think it’s a good way to prolong my career or because I feel that I have to. I do it because I want to.

I genuinely enjoy it.

My degree is in journalism (print focused) and political science, but I do much more than print journalism in my job. I’ve been creating Web pages longer than I have been a journalist. I experimented with rudimentary Web sites back when I was in middle school, and I’ve had a love affair with computers since I was a little kid.

I was on AOL before there were buddy lists, and I used Netscape Composer and Geocites to post less-than-attractive Web sites. They weren’t very good, but I’ve always been fascinated with delivering content — any content really — to people and interacting with them. There is something fun and free about the Web.

It’s everything newspapers aren’t — organic, democratic, ever changing, connected. That’s not to say that I don’t love journalism, I do, but I became a journalist after I discovered the joys of the Internet. Thus, when I finished j-school and formally started my journalism career, I wasn’t held back by any preconceived notions of what journalism is or what it isn’t.

To my peers I ask how do you consume news? I know the answer is overwhelming on the Web. Then why do you want to live in a pre-Internet era when it comes to your job?

Why do you want to create something you wouldn’t enjoy as a citizen? You should create what you want to consume. We all have immense respect for the Woodwards and the Bernsteins, but that doesn’t mean we have to do everything just like them.

We can be the new Wordwards and Bernsteins, but in our own way, with new ways of informing the people that go much deeper than the written word ever could.

To me, journalism is informing the people about the important events in their lives. It’s the Fourth Estate. It’s keeping government honest. It’s being an ally to citizens and helping democracy thrive.

After that, journalism can be anything. It can be written, video, audio, Web, mobile, database, social, etc. It doesn’t matter how I achieve my objective of informing the people — it just matters that I do.

Thus, I don’t hesitate when I am presented with a new form of journalism. Why should I? I’m a journalist — not a writer, videographer, Web designer, photographer, copy editor, paginator, database programmer, interface designer, audio engineer, graphic artist.

I am a journalist.